Adil Najam
The barely 3-month old SherShah by-pass bridge collapsed suddenly today killing at least 5, injuring many, and reports suggest that many many more are still trapped under the collapsed structure which is so huge that it cannot be easily lifted to save them. The bridge had cost nearly Rs. 3.5 billion to build and had just recently been inaugurated. According to The News:
A bridge of Northern Bypass at Paracha Chowk in Shershah area of the metropolis, which was opened by Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf on 6 August 2007, collapsed here Saturday, killing at least four people, injuring several others while trapping an unknown number of people under the debris. “Four people have died and over a dozen were wounded in the collapse,” southern port city police official Khalid Hameed said, adding that several vehicles were trapped in the debris.
However, a person trapped in the debris of the bridge was miraculously rescued. According to Geo News correspondent two dead bodies and three wounded persons have been brought to Civil Hospital Karachi, while four injured have been transferred to Abbasi Shaheed Hospital and one inured was shifted to Murhsid hospital. Rescuers were trying to clear the wreckage to retrieve injured and survivors amid fears the death toll could rise, they said. Witnesses said a portion of the bridge known as Northern Bypass fell with a huge bang while traffic was on it.
“It created such a huge sound that we thought it was an earthquake,” Zahid Khan, a resident of the area said. Karachi City Nazim Mustapha Kamal said the authorities were investigating the cause of the blast. The bridge was built by the state-run National Highway Authority. Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz phoned Governor Sindh Dr. Ishrat-ul-Ebad to seek details of Karachi bridge collapse, which has left at least four people dead, several injured and an unknown number of people have been trapped in the debris. The Prime Minister directed Ishrat to take no stone unturned in the relief and rescue activities to help the victims. The injured people should be provided with proper medical care, he directed. Shaukat Aziz also directed PM Inspection Committee to probe into the incident to ascertain the cause.
Chief minister Sindh Dr. Ghulam Arbab Rahim has expressed deep concern over the tragic incident of the collapse of a part of the northern by-pass bridge in Shershah and said that the persons involved cannot be pardoned. He said that an impartial investigation of the incident would be made.
With us having discussed Karachi’s infrastructure problems often (here, here and here), including the recent Economist ranking of Karachi as a difficult-to-live-in city, this bad news only compounds a bad situation. That the bridge was such a recent addition and was opened with such fanfare also raises concerns about quality and safety of the many other development projects going on in Karachi and all over Pakistan.
Our first priority right now must be the safety of those still trapped under the malba. As soon as that is done, we must all start looking at these infrastructure issues more seriously than we have till now.
This is sorrowful, we also suffered a bridge collapse recently in the US, our thoughts are with you.
This is indeed a gruesome tragedy. Its implications on the development of further such infrastructure projects in Karachi are grim as well.
Immediate thoughts, of course, go to the victims and their families for whom this must be a horrendous nightmare. May Allah(SWT) Grant them the strength to cope with their loss.
That said, there is no point in wasting time until a proper investigation can be carried out to determine the cause of this disaster; use of such illogical methods is inconsistent with the spirit of being Pakistani.
Let us set up gallows in the middle of the town and start hauling in the hordes …
Let me correct ADNAN
The water pump facility ( underground) is the old one established in 80s as it was there bofore the inception of this project and manned by water board personnel. The water pump is used to pump water in lines for navy as well as for all related areas in vicinity.
Real tragic incident. God bless the soul and give sabr–e-Jameel to affected families.
I have seen the development of this project since its inception as i have to use it everyday while going for work. Every day i crossess this bridge, i used to pay ‘homage’ to constructors and consultants as i have never seen such bridge in my life. Some body told me a year before that due design problem, construction work has been delayed and when it was completed, any dumb person can guess the same by the style of construction.
Thanx to chaos, adhocism, appointment of ‘non professional’ personnel on professional jobs, mass corruption and non presence of institutions which resulted this.
Nothing would happen to all involved… we could not punish any one in our history, how can now!Every body know about the big fishes responsible for such constructions.
I have witnessed all the mega projects in karachi and sorry to say all the project’s present condition clearly speak the level of corruption and quality of material and job. If any body has doubt please travel on signal free corridor and guess urself by looking at quality of job done.
God Bless this country which is being looted by inhibitants!!!!!
this is sad on many levels
* plan scrutiny/
* quality control?
* construction safeguards?
* on going maintenance
* project overseeing?
and more…
my pet peeve re: this tragedy is directed at the radio/tv hosts and reporters and the people gathered at the site
have been monitoring the tv and radio broadcasts earlier - and found it completely unprofessional - and i am not bringing up ethics!
almost all the hosts tried to elicit gory, unsubstantiated and circumstantial info out of the reporters and relaying it directly to the listeners/viewers without any check and editing….
their coverage would have been laughable were it not such a serious mishap involving loss of life…
the crowd had gathered towatch the tamasha and were heckling the police and rangers who wanted to keep the access to the site open for the ambulances and relief vehicles…shouting anti-govt. slogans…sheesh…have they lost their marbles?…was that the time for raising their ire? and the radio/tv jockeys were egging on the on the spot reporters to elicit information about THAT instead of using their mikes to advice the listeners/viewers to stay away and let the rescue teams do their job
* then all day they were harping on the type and availability of rescue equipment…as if their sudden interest would help the victims
* then they were chasing officials..almost demanding blood
* and the officials obliged - by announcing suspension of official responsible for planning and executing the project…should not this come later?…don’t they need these officials to aid in the ongoing investigation and to help check out other projects that might suffer from similar weaknesses?
sad, but they all smack of yellow journalism at worst and irresponsible coverage at the best…
wish someone gathers the tapes and teach them to students in the mass-communication courses on how not to cover a disaster.
perhaps more later…sad, sad, sad
God bless those innocent souls which lost their lives in the tragedy and we pray for the safety of those who are trapped under the debris.
Yes, of course, we need to look seriously into the issues of safety while commissioning the mega projects. One month life for a bridge is a HUGE engineering failure of a nation. Last year, railways bridge near Karachi collapsed in the flood and disconnected the railroad link from rest of the country for about a month. We need to inspect all our new and old bridges.
I am sure that whole nation would be in trauma of seeing the standards of our construction and the rhetoric of BOOM.
PS. It reminded me the recent tragedy in USA when a bridge collapsed in Minneapolis and I was on my way to cross that bridge but narrowly escaped by the margin of 15-20 minutes.
Awful news, when will we learn. All those responsible must be tried and hanged!
3.5 billion minus 25% to the Military Inc. minus 10% to MQM minus 20% to other functionaries and sub-contractors minus 10% to the pir or jagirdars = sub-standard bridge that has warranty of no more than 21 days.
The government functionaries will give lame excuses and in essence say “tough luck” to the Karachiites and nobody is going to do a damn thing it. No body is going to dare ask these officials about the debits and credits or how come these officials’ massive assets are not commensurate with their known income.
Welcome to Karachi – the Mafia precinct!